A testimony

I was raised in a Christian home where a belief in Yahweh (we then called Him God), prayer, and spiritual growth were all held high, we attended church most Sundays. We were not caught up in any one denomination. I remember attending the Baptist church, charismatic churches, etc. In my teens we felt called out of the church to a home gathering where we had prayer, fellowship, and singing. After 8 or so years our home fellowship broke up. We didn’t really feel like we were supposed to go back to church even though we desired fellowship so we ended up waiting for direction.

During this time we began discussing the Sabbath and a few other spiritual topics. I don’t think I had a clue what we believed, if you can imagine a cloudy haze with Yahweh, the ten commandments tucked in there, with some personal convictions such as not having a tree at Christmas, or dressing modestly most of the time, not getting drunk, and so on and so forth. Of course it was always the safe thing to say that I believed anything the Bible taught. We had a pretty good life, nothing too tragic up to that point, and nothing that challenged us to think too deeply about our beliefs. Our discussions about the Sabbath led us to try keeping it. What I remember was going out to pull weeds on the Sabbath with the justification that “I like pulling weeds, so it must be OK”, this attitude showed through all of us as we pretty much continued with our normal living on Sabbath especially if we really wanted to do whatever it was that seemed to get in the way.

Our family’s journey into the truth of the scriptures probably began way back when I was too young to remember. I sometimes wonder how Yahweh can put up with such slow learners as we have been. I can say that our learning was greatly accelerated in 2006 when someone asked our family for approval for something that we weren’t sure was right but that is very prolific in today’s church and all over the world. We were somewhat hesitant to give approval and began to study the scriptures. Everything we read pointed us away from approving the action. We didn’t readily accept the truth we had discovered in our studies because it was not what we had been taught by the church yet there it was in the Bibles. It’s not easy to go against the flow but our only other option was to lie to ourselves, our friends, and our family, as well as disobey Yahweh. The Bible continued to be our teacher and we gathered from our studies that we could not give our approval. We admonished the person who asked for the approval to reconsider their action and take the path of truth.

At this time we came to a turning point in our spiritual walk. I feel that when you obey something difficult from the Bible that it makes obeying many other things seem so much easier. Your priorities change and there becomes a commitment to the truth. Suddenly everything that Yahweh had to say seemed so much more important. We began seeking His word in search of truth. It seemed that we instinctively knew that we were missing out on some big things.

The following year we began keeping Sabbath with more commitment and abstaining from unclean “food”. We were introduced to the idea of calling Yahweh and Yahshua by their actual names rather than using the title God or the Grecian name Jesus. We also stopped celebrating Christmas and Easter and began to study and think about whether or not we should keep Yahweh’s feasts. We really didn’t know what the feasts were or how you keep them. I remember the first time we attempted to acknowledge the Feast of Trumpets; mom was out of town and I fixed some food for dad and I which we enjoyed and then returned to our work as usual without a clue. Some of our first Passovers ended up in a big disagreement of how one should keep the feast. Through much study and guidance of believers who have gone before us we have learned a great deal in a short amount of time. Though there is probably no perfect assembly, we have found comfort and fellowship with Yahweh’s Restoration Ministry with whom we were re-baptized this year at Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles).


In no way have we found that keeping the Sabbath, Feasts, and clean food laws lessen our spiritual walk rather it has been enhanced! Not only that but it is a most wonderful gift that we have seen blessings abound since we had begun keeping them. Our lives have not been "perfect" since seeking the truth, tragedy has struck a few times over. Life has been more ordered as we strive to be prepared for Yahweh’s days of rest and worship, our family is living in a unity that we had not before experienced, and our spiritual walk is continually growing as we seek truth and guidance from the whole of Yahweh’s word.